Colonel S P Meek

Bellfarm Star, the Story of a Pacer

Dodd Mead, New York, 1955, illus Gerald McCann, 213 pp.

Reprinted 1956.

“Roger hopes that Sally’s next foal will b e good enough to to go in the Hambletonian, but when Roger is missing in
action in the war and Bellfarm Star breaks his leg, only Roger’s brother Chub believes that things will turn out well.”

Colonel Sterner St Paul Meek (1894-1972), who also wrote under the names Capt. S P Meek, Major S P Meek and Sterner St Paul, was a US military chemist.  Before turning to writing children’s books, he wrote science fiction, which, despite its popularity, critic Samuel R Delany called “unbelievably bad.”  

Sterner St Paul Meek studied at The University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, The University of Wisconsin-Madison and MIT.  During the First World War, he joined the American Army as a military chemist and ordnance expert.  When he retired from the Army in 1947, he became a full time writer.

After his excursion into science fiction, he turned to children’s books, most of which were about animals, especially dogs.  He wrote four horse books,

Finding the books:  Bellfarm is expensive; Frog easy and cheap to find in its Famous Horses incarnation; expensive as a first edition; Midnight is reasonably easy to find, but can be expensive, and Pagan is expensive as a first edition. None of the books were published in the UK.

Links and Sources:
Terri A. Wear:  Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibilography, Scarecrow Press, 1987

Wikipedia on Colonel S P Meek

Bibliography - horse books only

Pagan, a Border Patrol Horse

Knopf, New York,1951, 238 pp.
Knopt, New York, 1965, reprint.

“Ted and his gelding Pagan both work for the Texas Border Patrol tracing down mojados, Mexicans who have
illegally entered the United States.”

Midnight:  a Cow Pony

A A Knopf, New York, 1949, 217 pp.

Various Knopf reprints.

“A supposedly tenderfoot cowboy comes to the Lazy E Rtanch asking to be taken on so he can learn all about
ranching, but when he is told to chose his string of horses, he chooses Midnight, a cowpony few can ride.”

Frog, the Horse that Knew No Master

William Penn Publishing Co, Philadelphia, 1933 (possibly - various
publishers given for 1st edition)

Knopf, 1946, illus Charles Hargens

Grosset & Dunlap, Famous Horse Series

“Frog, the US cavalry horse stationed in Panama, is described as a
vicious outlaw destined to be destroyed until Lieutenant Scott is sent to
Panama and he turns the bay horse into a good polo mount.”